RELATIVE AMBIDEXTERITY: A MEASURE AND A VERSATILE FRAMEWORK

RELATIVE AMBIDEXTERITY: A MEASURE AND A VERSATILE FRAMEWORK

Executives struggle to arrive at appropriate levels of ambidexterity to achieve desired performance. Scholars have proposed varied and sometimes confounding solutions to this challenge. We offer a novel approach by arguing that a firm's ambidexterity is a strategic choice that must be contextua...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Academy of Management perspectives Vol. 31; no. 2; pp. 124 - 136
Main Authors: D'SOUZA, DERRICK E., SIGDYAL, PRATIGYA, STRUCKELL, ELISABETH
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Briarcliff Manor Academy of Management 01-05-2017
Subjects:
Competition
Executives
Handedness
Organizational behavior
Strategic management
Studies
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Summary:Executives struggle to arrive at appropriate levels of ambidexterity to achieve desired performance. Scholars have proposed varied and sometimes confounding solutions to this challenge. We offer a novel approach by arguing that a firm's ambidexterity is a strategic choice that must be contextualized in the competitive dynamics of the firm's referent group. We digress from conventional organization-centric contextualizations and introduce an appropriately specified construct—relative ambidexterity—to address this need. We characterize the viable relative ambidexterity space (VRAS) where ambidexterity choices are made, and we offer a versatile framework to help researchers and practitioners explore organizational ambidexterity. We close by demonstrating how the framework offers opportunities for new streams of scholarly research on ambidexterity.
ISSN:1558-9080
1943-4529
DOI:10.5465/amp.2016.0020